<> Natural Gas Prices Hit 5-Year High of $6/MMBtu - Natural gas prices are up more than 45% this year and have now hit their highest point since 2009, based on record demand and falling supply. "Americans are getting hit in the wallets by huge price spikes and supply shortages, but it will only get worse if we send more natural gas overseas to our global competitors. It's bad enough now, but this is an eerie foreshadowing of the crisis to. . .

<> Utilities Industry Members Applaud Sen. Murkowski's Electric Reliability White Paper - WASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last week warned attendees at the annual winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) that the reliability of the nation's electric grid could suffer unless federal policymakers pay greater attention to the impacts of a range of new factors and forces, including changes in the. . .

Nuclear Waste: Auditors find continuing mismanagement at nuclear fuel plant - The Energy Department has repeatedly and substantially underestimated the costs of building a South Carolina plant meant to turn surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for power plants, federal auditors declared in a new report on Feb. 20. The Government Accountability Office said the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration moreover has never completed "root. . .

<> GAO Report On Oil and Gas - Interior Has Begun to Address Hiring and Retention Challenges but Needs to Do More, GAO-14-205. Challenges hiring and retaining staff with key skills needed to manage and oversee oil and gas operations on federal leases.

<> Federal Court Strikes Down Bush-Era Stream-Dumping Rule - Pro-mountaintop removal measure and threat to clean water gets the axe. A federal court struck down a controversial George W. Bush administration rule that opened up Appalachia's streams and waterways to toxic dumping from destructive mountaintop removal mining operations.